Careful, Ben silently cautioned himself. Many of these people-maybe all of them-think your words should be chipped in stone to stand forever, and for many of them, this will be the final mental imprint of an event that history might never record with the written word.
He looked at them. They waited patiently.
But I am a man, Ben thought. Therefore I am human, with all the frailties therein. So I have to tell it as I saw it and perceived it.
“The government meant well,” Ben said, choosing his words carefully, conscious of Gale’s eyes on his face, listening intently. “But in their fervor to correct a centuries-old problem, they went overboard with their efforts. The government and courts meant well, and much of what they did was right and just. I will never be convinced that a racially balanced school system
did one damn thing for or toward quality education. Do not-any of you-misconstrue my statement. I am not now and have never been an advocate of the so-called separate but equal philosophy. If one is equal, that is enough said. I believed very strongly in neighborhood schools. They were built so the children of that neighborhood could stay in that neighborhood and still receive a quality education. The courts changed all that by forced busing, and they created a monster; they created hard feelings and near-riots, undue expense for the taxpayer and unnecessary hardships for the kids who had to-were forced-to endure miles of riding a bus. Yes, they were forced. If the parents did not submit to the whims of the government, they faced jail. So much for personal freedom and freedom of choice.
“The government created a welfare state, up to three and four generations of people on welfare. The government took away the will to work among many people. Certainly not all the recipients, but enough of them to create one massive problem. The solution was simple to men like me: Make the people work if they were able to work. But the courts refused to do that. More hard feelings among many of the taxpayers who were picking up the tab-and the tab got more and more expensive. It got-along with the programs-out of hand.
“The great shame of our social programs was the way the government neglected the elderly and the very young. That was a shame I shall never forget. The government would give a community a half million dollars to build a goddamn swimming pool, yet in that same community, the elderly didn’t have enough to
eat, proper shelter or warm clothing. I don’t know how our politicians could shave in the mornings without feeling the urge to cut their throats.
“It seemed that for a while, almost everything the government did irritated somebody or some group. And sadly, rightly or wrongly, the minorities got the blame for it. Many people’s dislike of Jews turned to hatred because so many of the American Jews supported the social programs, were against the death penalty, headed drives in support of gun control. That did nothing to enhance the position of Jews in rural areas-and not just in the South, for the South had become the whipping boy for the liberal eastern establishment.
“The government-in the form of the courts-moved into the private sector, into the work place. Private industry was ordered to establish hiring practices that would include X number of blacks, X number of Hispanics, X number of this and that and the other thing. I’m not saying it was right or wrong, just that it created as many problems as it did solutions.
“And then we had the traditional haters on both sides of the color line. Whites who hated blacks but couldn’t tell you why-they just did. Blacks that hated whites and couldn’t tell you why-they just did. Both sides taught their kids to hate. We had teachers in private academies who would stand up in front of their all-white classes and proudly announce they would never teach or allow a damn nigger in their classrooms. And that is fact, people, not fiction.
“And in many-if not most-of the public schools in the South, and probably all over the nation, teachers became afraid to discipline blacks, and I mean literally
afraid. Fear of losing jobs, fear of having their tires slashed, fear of a lawsuit. All it produced was a couple of generations of badly disciplined and ill-educated blacks. But whitey wasn’t gonna do no number on me, man. You dig?
“Now … that was not the majority of blacks, but just enough to leave a bad taste in a lot of people’s mouths.
“Anybody with any insight at all could have and should have seen what was coming: white flight. That became quite a popular word back in the seventies.
“It may seem to you all that I am being unduly harsh on the black people. But you new people, look around you-you don’t see any of the blacks in this command leaving, do you? None of them are leveling guns at me for what I just said. No, because we worked it all out. We agreed on every major issue. We of Tri-States don’t have bigotry and hatred for someone of another color. We don’t have it because we all realized that education was the key to removing it. Education, understanding, some degree of conformity, and patience. We understood that regardless of color, a child is going to need and get a spanking from time to time. That is up to the teacher and it begins and ends there. That is the agreement made between school and parent.
“We almost made it work in Tri-States. We came so close the taste of victory was on our tongues. But the central government in Richmond just couldn’t stand it. I thought they would applaud the achievements we made: all races and nationalities living and working together without one incident in ten years. I thought the central government might learn something from our experiment. But they didn’t. But we aren’t giving
up, people. We’ll make it work again. On a smaller scale, certainly; but we will make it work once more.”
The Rebels stood in silence for a few moments, then slowly began to disperse. Denise stood with a wistful expression on her face. “I just want to live in peace,” she said. “Yet here I am carrying guns. It’s crazy, General.”
“Crazy world, Denise. But it’s always been my belief that the olive branch of peace only gets partial attention. Especially to people who aren’t really interested in peace. It gets their full attention if the other hand is holding a gun.”
“But isn’t one the contradiction of the other?” she asked.
“So is the term fair fight.”
She laughed and turned to leave. “Wish us luck, General.”
“Break a leg, kids.”
She walked away to join the other young people in one final check of supplies and equipment and weapons.
“When I first heard about Tri-States,” Gale said, moving to Ben’s side, “I thought what you people were doing was monstrous.”
“Little liberal got all outraged, eh?” Ben smiled at her.
“That’s putting it mildly, Ben.”
“Our success stuck in the craws of government, Gale. They just couldn’t stand our proving them wrong on nearly every social issue they had advocated and bled the taxpayer to implement and keep going for years. Government just couldn’t believe we could bring it all back to the basics and make it work. But we
did and it outraged them.”
“And you are going to do it again, Ben.” It was not put as a question.
“If I can.”
The man and woman stood in silence for a few moments. Stood and watched as the young people began leaving. Gale said, “I wonder if they know what they are facing?”
He took her small hand in his. “No. No, they don’t. But those that survive this will grow wise to the ways of this ravaged planet very quickly, I am thinking. Either that or die.”
Gale glanced up at him, horror evident on her face. “Those that survive?”
“We will never see thirty to forty percent of them again,” Ben said flatly.
“Knowing that, you still sent them out?” There was genuine outrage in her voice.